


Spirits of the North

by Wargurl83



Series: WoW Drabbles, Stories and General RP [4]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-07 17:02:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4271067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wargurl83/pseuds/Wargurl83





	1. Chapter 1

It was snowing again. Sometimes, it felt like it never stopped, but a fresh wave had started to find its way down to the earth below. A flake touched the nose of the wolf before melting away.  
  
Once upon a time, she would have shook her fur clear of the downfall of white flakes, but times had changed. The fur of her wolf form had grown shaggy, adapting to the harsh elements. Through the thick fur, she no longer felt the cold and no longer moved to shake it off. When had she last moved, she wondered? Had it been days? Weeks? Perhaps months? Time ran together into a never ending blur in the place Rayshin had stolen away to.  
  
Some days, she couldn't remember why. Was it to think? Meditation? She remembered why she had chosen to take up residence there. The mountains of Icecrown constantly held the stench of rotting flesh and magic that belonged to the scourge. The giants of the Storm Peaks allowed her to come and go, but she felt their eyes, constantly watching her as she moved through their territory.  
  
Instead, she chose Dragonblight. It was cleaner there. True, further to the west, the ash of the Wrath Gate still smoldered and the fires and sulfur of the Black Dragonflight mixed to taint the cold air. But to the east, between the path the Titan walked and the Scarlet's new outpost, high in the mountains separating the land from Forest of Crystalsong, was where the shaman chose to be lost.  
  
That was it, she thought, sighing, sending up a cloud of breath that turned to frost before her. Lost. Ever since they had crashed to Azeroth, that was what she had been. The language troubled her, keeping her outside the crowds of the cities. The failed communication kept her from being part of their world.  
  
Even the spirits had her lost. They had not abandoned her, she knew that as she could feel the totems that surrounded her pulse with their energy. Their messages were just unclear. Even her work with them frustrated her. They shifted and moved like the elements they inhabited. Every time she felt she understood what they wanted of her, they shifted and she slipped, lost again.  
  
Yes, that was why she had come. There was a storm inside her, and Rayshin wasn't sure she could control it anymore. The elements offered no safe release for her, so she escaped to the mountains, away from all. At first she had cried out to the spirits, asking for help to control this storm building up inside her. But they were silent.  
  
In their Silence, she turned to the Gods, crying out to them. As time passed, she even asked the "Light", whatever that was, that she had heard spoken of on her travels.  
  
But there was nothing. And as the silence stretched on, the shaman fell silent. She only called the totems, at first as a small amount of hope that she had not been abandoned, but even as the totems still pulsed with the energy of the elements, her hope slowly faded.  
  
The snuffling sound had returned. Rayshin didn't even open her eyes. Something had been prowling on the edges of her totems for some time now. Days, maybe longer. She had never been witness to this creature, but she could feel it getting closer. If she wished, she could probably frighten it away, with a pulse from the fire totem. The snow would melt, the rush of heat would do more than a fire's flame to frighten any wild creature away, but she did not. Gone was the fear of the unknown. The only thing that remained was the storm.  
  
It was soft at first, like a whisper beside her ear, but then it grew in volume, echoing off the sides of the mountains, ringing, filling the place she lay. It was just one voice, but there were so many notes to it, it felt like a chorus. Her eyes opened to watch the wolf sitting in front of her howl to the sky.  
  
He was whiter than the snow of Northrend that fell around them with paws almost as big as the base of her totems. Everything about him implied power and strength, but Rayshin felt grace and ease around him. He paused to watch her watching him, then threw back his head to sing again.  
  
As her voice found her, she sat to add her howl to the chorus. Her ears could pick up the native wolves from further away calling in answer, being brought to her with the wind.  
  
As the notes rang, he lowered his head, offering a grin only a wolf could, then with a flurry of snow kicked up by the wind, he was gone.  
  
Rayshin looked around curiously. The snow had stopped falling, and in the fresh blanket of white, wolf tracks were all around her circle of totems. Everything was quiet, for once, even the storm. A glint of silver caught her eye in the snow. It took only seconds of pawing at it to uncover what it was, a small mechanical box hooked to a chain with the words "Gnomish Common Language Converter Model 3000" stamped on the front panel.  
  
A grin crossed the wolf's face as she read on: "Guaranteed to be accurate 97.6% of the time when not exploding."  
  
Taking the box in her jaws, the wolf started her way down the mountain.  
  
_In Sekhmeet's workshop_  
  
Placed in the middle of the workshop table lies a metal box with a note attached to it.  
  
_"I've come home, Sek. Think we can up the accuracy to 98% and get rid of the exploding?_  
  
-Rayshin, or as the Spirits call me...Faeowyn."


	2. Chapter 2

Sekhmeet sat in Shadowmeld looking over her workshop. Someone had been coming in and messing with her tools ever since Faeowyn had dropped off her translator. She had a vague idea of what the culprit was after reading Fae's letter, but she wanted to be sure. The translator box was sitting in pieces on her worktable with her tools arranged around the mat. Sekh arranged herself in a comfortable position against the wall, closed her eyes to mere slits and settled in to wait.  
  
An hour later she was in the same position watching her tools dance across the table. Nothing was flying into the wall or melting yet, so she was more than happy just to watch. She kept seeing glances of something when one of her tools moved, but nothing truly visible. She slowly reached up to her goggles and slid them back over her eyes. She had recently made an adjustment to them to show all elemental energy instead of just the static clouds. Her workshop lit up like the trees that the goblins put up during the Feast of Winter Veil. Apparently the elements had decided to hold a party in her workshop without telling her. She watched as the flitted around the room. Their antics reminded her a lot of Shait's many kittens in that they played with anything and everything, whether it moved or not.  
  
She watched them play for close to an hour. No melting, throwing or any other destruction was going on, so she figured it would be safe enough to find out where they had come from. She deliberately coughed and stretched out her arms, breaking the Shadowmeld. Instantly the elementals scattered- all but one. The one on the table froze in place over the disassembled translator as if trying to dive into a filled in hole. She watched as it flitted across her table desperately looking for somewhere to hide. She sighed as the realization hit her- the little air elemental had attached itself to Faeowyn- and had made the box its home.  
  
Sekhmeet sat down and whistled at the elemental; getting its attention and letting it know she could see it. The elemental stilled, watching her. Sekhmeet beckoned it over and pointed at the box.  "It's OK, I'm a friend. I made this box for Faeowyn so that she could talk to other people without worrying about how she sounds because of her accent."

  
The elemental seemed to understand what she was saying. It crept over to the box and hovered (elementals don't sit down, you know). As they stared at each other, Sekhmeet sighed.  "What am I going to do with you?"

  
She could have sworn the elemental just grinned at her.  
  
~~  
  
Sekhmeet moved through the crowd in Stormwind, her skills as a Sentinel showing in her fluid movements. She had gotten directions to the tea shop from the Inn Keeper. As she wound her way through the streets, she could feel the elemental playing with her hair. It was moving back and forth across her shoulders at the nape of her neck playing with the wisps that came out of her braid. It tickled enough that she finally had to reach up and coax it into her hand. She moved through the crowd until she saw the sign for the tea shop. As she stepped into the dim shop, she transferred the elemental back to her shoulder so she would have both hands free to sift through the assorted leaves. She had noticed that Field Medic Var's personal stock of tea leaves was stale, and the Medic also needed medicinal teas that were not available in the field and wanted a stock kept at all times. As she was reaching for the medicinal bundles that Field Medic Var had started running out of, Sekhmeet's eyes passed over what looked to be a holey ball with a chain attached to it. She stared for a moment, perplexed at what the item was supposed to be.  
  
"Ma'am? Is there something I can help you with?"

  
Sekhmeet looked over and sheepishly tucked the bundles she was holding into her bag. She picked the ball and handed it to the woman, asking "What is that?".

  
The woman smiled. "It's a tea ball. My husband and I designed it for the people who don't like trying to strain the leaves by hand." She moved behind the counter and reached for a clay mug. She moved to the stove and poured hot water into the mug and filled the tea ball with loose leaves. She then placed the ball into the steaming water and draped the chain over the side of the mug. "Instead of pouring the water over the leaves in a strainer, you place the ball into the hot water and let it steep until it is at the flavor you want. The chain is to keep from having to fish around in the mugs trying to get the ball back out of the water." She swished it around a bit and pulled it back out of the mug.  
  
Sekhmeet grinned. "I'll take twenty or so, if you don't mind. I know a few people who would love these."  
  
~~  
  
A few days later found Sekehmeet sitting in her workshop again. She had engraved the names of a few people she was planning on giving the tea balls to onto them and was packaging them together with the tea bundles she was sending out. As she sat the last package to the side to be sent off, she caught sight of the little elemental. The thing acted much like a kitten; playing with everything in sight, whither it moved or not. She did catch it staring at the translator quite a bit, and she got the feeling that it missed being with Faeowyn. She had finally convinced it to stay out of the box so she could fine tune it and replace the plate. She picked the box up and turned it over in her hands. She knew that the elemental had attached itself to Faeowyn, but had anchored to the box. The problem was that in order to fix the translator she had to apply a titanium shield to it to keep the wind out of the working parts. However, if she did that, she would cut the elemental off from its "home". She sighed and set the box back onto the table, knocking off one of the tea balls as she did so. She watched the elemental chase the ball and swoop it up and send it back to her with a little vortex. As she accepted the ball, she brightened. She knew how to fix the conundrum they were in. Now to just convince the elemental...  
  
~~  
  
A few days later found the translator box finished and hanging by the door of Sekhmeet's Workshop. It had the following note attached to it:  
  
_Faeowyn-_

  
_I added a titanium shield to keep the wind and cold out. Accuracy should be close to 99%. Oh, don't mind the new attachment. Your elemental really likes you._  
  
_-Sekh_


End file.
